The introduction of a mechanized take-up operation for billets produced in an extrusion or tube-making press gave rise to the requirement of limiting the tractive force which is exerted on the billet and keeps the latter straight so as to prevent any effect on the formation of the billet in the die (DE-PS 484 649). If billets are produced which either cannot or are not intended to be wound up, it is usual to provide a table after the press which receives the emerging billets and guides them during extrusion, with support surfaces, which are as flat as possible, being provided to prevent distortion of the billets during cooling. Owing to the risk of thin billets buckling and the reaction of the shear force on the formation of the billet in the die, resulting in compression of the emerging billet, it is usual to use take-up device consisting of carriages which are moved along the table by a traversing drive and provided with grippers which grip the tips of the emerging billets. However it has to be ensured that the tractive force exerted on a billet by a take-up device does not affect the formation of the billet in the die by causing a contraction in area of the emerging billet. In order to meet the demand for increasingly closer tolerances of the cross-sectional dimensions of the billets, the traversing drives, together with the measurement and control of the tractive force to be exerted on the billets, have been improved in numerous proposals with the result that, by means of a more accurate and direct measurement of the tractive force at the grippers and specially developed tranversing drives, the smallest possible tractive force, which is constant within narrow limits, is sufficient to keep the billets straight and prevent compressive forces from arising in the billet.